SANTA CRUZ – A Tampa, Fla. woman ditched her bikini and shorts when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled up to find out why she was taking a stroll on the side of Highway 17 Thursday.

The woman was walking south of the Pasatiempo overcrossing on northbound 17 about noon in a bikini top and shorts when California Highway Patrol officer Christopher Shore pulled up.

Thirty-four-year-old Cheryl L. Beauchamp removed her bikini top and dropped her shorts, exposing her nude body to passing motorists.

Beauchamp was handcuffed and dressed and then booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for indecent exposure, according to officer Shore. She also was cited for being on the freeway illegally.

Shore had warned Beauchamp two hours earlier not to walk on the freeway. At that time she was walking on southbound Highway 1 near Morrissey Boulevard.

Friday morning, Beauchamp was spotted by yet another CHP officer at Casa del 17, a pit-stop on the northbound side of Highway 17. She was fully clothed, and the officer gave her a ride into Santa Cruz, according to officer Sarah Jackson.

A transit village with apartments, retailers, restaurants and a hotel is rising in Milpitas next to The Great Mall, close to light rail and the under-construction BART station. It’s one of several Silicon Valley projects sprouting up near transit.